Accumulated promoter methylation as a potential biomarker for esophageal cancer

We performed a two-stage molecular epidemiological study to explore DNA methylation profiles for potential biomarkers of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in a Chinese population. Infinium Methylation 450K BeadChip was used to identify genes with differentially methylated CpG sites. Sixteen candidate genes were validated by sequencing 1160 CpG sites in their promoter regions using the Illumina MiSeq platform. When excluding sites with negative changes, 10 genes (BNIP3, BRCA1, CCND1, CDKN2A, HTATIP2, ITGAV, NFKB1, PIK3R1, PRDM16 and PTX3) showed significantly different methylation levels among cancer lesions, remote normal-appearing tissues, and healthy controls. PRDM16 had the highest diagnostic value with the AUC (95% CI) of 0.988 (0.965-1.000), followed by PIK3R1, with the AUC (95% CI) of 0.969 (0.928-1.000). In addition, the methylation status was higher in patients with advanced cancer stages. These results indicate that aberrant DNA methylation may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of ESCC.